Sponsoring Competitions

"What, we actually managed to attract an internet celebrity to come to us on their own accord?" Su Bai was amused. "That's pretty awesome. I feel like these people usually only keep their eyes on those cash-grab browser games with endless new servers, or mini-programs and the like. It's really rare for them to seek out a game like ours."

"Perhaps, maybe it's just a coincidence? Or maybe they want to do something different... Anyway, it just doesn't feel very suitable..."

"It really isn't suitable."

Su Bai took the tablet from Mr. Du's hands, glanced at the information about the influencer that Mr. Du had just summarized, and gave his sharp critique.

Truth be told, Mr. Du's working ability was indeed flawless.

His management skills were another story.

But at least when it came to interpersonal skills and quickly gathering and organizing information, he acted exactly like the workplace veteran he was.

One shouldn't underestimate these basic tasks. In reality, many inflexible employees wouldn't be able to handle a smooth operator like Li Xiaocan.

Influencers who could reach a certain level of popularity, even minor ones, possessed networking skills that far exceeded those of ordinary office workers, let alone when they came prepared with a specific goal in mind.

As for why he wouldn't consider cooperating with this kind of person, the first issue was attitude.

Su Bai would only engage in promotional collaborations with channels he could completely control. After all, he wasn't in a hurry to make money from the game. Since he was just playing around, his main focus was naturally on polishing the game itself. As for marketing and distribution, he preferred to let nature take its course and slowly build up a good reputation through word of mouth.

Collaborating with troublesome streamers would only make their target audience chaotic.

To some extent, in this chaotic post-internet era, making highly vertical content was much more worry-free than making things for the mass market. At the very least, players' recognition of the game would be higher, making it a fair trade where both parties get what they want.

After getting Su Bai's approval, Mr. Du understood what to do. He went to the conference room and looked at Li Xiaocan, whose expression was a bit complicated, and said, "Our boss just happened to have time to drop by the company, but he has other arrangements with his girlfriend, so he won't be joining the meeting for now... Regarding marketing, the boss recently ordered us to adopt a contraction strategy and keep a low profile. So, even if we had ideas, we wouldn't dare to act rashly. We ask for your understanding."

These words were watertight. Compared to Vice President Wang's passive-aggressiveness, they made the assistant feel even more powerless.

As for Li Xiaocan, after being shocked by the good looks of the boss and his girlfriend, she discovered another surprising fact.

This company was so united.

In fact, in most small companies, the smaller the temple, the bigger the wind. There weren't many people, but everyone with even a little bit of power had their own hidden agendas.

When negotiating with such companies, the most reliable strategy was to divide and conquer. However, this game company didn't seem as simple as she had thought.

Therefore, after a few perfunctory words, Li Xiaocan pulled her assistant along and left the building.

Stepping out of the building and into the cold, gloomy winter air, Li Xiaocan actually breathed a long sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness, our luck isn't bad. We didn't offend them too much... otherwise, tsk tsk."

"Is it really that exaggerated?" The assistant was a bit puzzled, not knowing where Li Xiaocan's psychological pressure was coming from.

"Couldn't you tell? That real boss is so young, yet he carries a low-key, composed aura of nobility. His background is definitely not simple... Not only does he look down on collaborating with us, but he might even find us disdainful."

"Really? He just felt like a relatively sunny college student..."

"Sigh, I can only say that your ability to read people still needs improvement."

"..."

Li Xiaocan had done a lot of business deals and had interacted with all sorts of small business owners, especially from streaming guilds and game studios.

These small bosses often liked to bluff or use the names of big shots to intimidate others. In short, there were all kinds of bizarre people.

What made her fear Su Bai the most was that, even though he was clearly the actual controller of the company, with Mr. Du bowing and scraping to him, Su Bai didn't have much of the slippery, worldly vibe typical of people in society.

This was a very rare situation, proving that this person's background was unfathomably deep.

"Then, Sister Li, for this trip, should we just pretend nothing happened?"

"What else? Do you still want to gossip about them behind their backs? I don't want to cause trouble for myself." Li Xiaocan rolled her eyes.

In any other situation, after failing to get a free ride, Li Xiaocan would usually make passive-aggressive remarks about their game during her livestreams.

She was quite narrow-minded in that regard.

But this time, she genuinely didn't dare.

Some people were best left unprovoked; it was best not to do anything that might cause them displeasure.

Perhaps if they got upset, they could casually drop a word to someone and make your life miserable for a long time.

...

Meanwhile, inside the office building of the startup park.

At the time, Su Bai had directly bought an entire floor and enjoyed a handsome cashback. However, besides the cashback, there were other uses as well. For example, he brought Chen Yusheng here not just to tour the game company, but also to help look at the venue.

The university was preparing to hold an artificial intelligence competition. Because it was related to robotics, it required a relatively large space.

Their computer science department was naturally among the organizers, but they were struggling a bit with finding a venue, as there wasn't a very suitable space on campus.

Nowadays, office space resources were somewhat tight for many majors. Especially for popular majors that had recruited many teachers and students in recent years, it was highly likely that they couldn't even provide office space for young researchers. Asking the department to set aside a separate area to host a competition was truly putting them in a difficult position.

Because of this, many universities had been frantically building new campuses over the past few years, or simply relocating to desolate suburban areas. This was a move made out of necessity, as well as a national strategy.

One could only say there were pros and cons. Although the land prices and space in the distant suburbs were more favorable, being far from the city center was naturally very inconvenient, especially for the teachers.

It was also inconvenient for graduate students. Setting aside other things, internships would become a torment, pointlessly increasing their commute time.

Su Bai didn't need to consider all that. When he heard that the department was going to host a competition, he contacted Xia Lin to see if he could sponsor it.

After all, the last thing I, Su Xiaobai, lack is office space.

Having bought an entire floor in the startup park, this location wasn't far for the students on campus. It was quite convenient and sounded prestigious enough. In fact, many undergraduate students still wore rose-tinted glasses when it came to companies stationed in the startup park. These companies were more or less connected to alumni, and the work they did was in directions that at least appeared high-end, giving off an inexplicable aura of technology.

Xia Lin was very supportive of Su Bai's idea, telling him to rest assured and that she would help communicate the offer.

Xia Lin could be said to be very skilled at similar matters; this was considered a basic skill for handling university affairs.